LABI embraces role Cristo Rey plays in area

Stephen Waguespack understands the importance of an educated workforce in the state of Louisiana. 

As director of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Waguespack’s mission is focused on recruiting businesses to the state and without a qualified labor pool from which to pick, those businesses are likely to drive pilings elsewhere.

From his perspective as the state’s leading business executive and a board member at Franciscan High School in Baton Rouge, he is able to witness firsthand the role the innovative school continues to play in helping Louisiana develop an educated workforce. 

He said Cristo Rey’s nurturing environment was the “difference maker” in the success of one of his former student workers at LABI.

“People wanted to hear his story and wanted to help him deal with the challenges that came his way, to know that people loved him and wanted him to be successful,” Waguespack said.

Original FHS board member Vic Howell is perhaps most proud of the achievement of the students, who have had to overcome daunting challenges in the past five years.

“The most rewarding thing for me is to see the development of our kids from the day they walk in the door until the day they walk out,” Howell said. “The maturity level that they gain, the exposure to the business community, which gives them such a rounded opportunity to look at life and what they want to do.”

The school’s success is rooted in the Cristo Rey network system, which provides low-income students the opportunity to work in corporate environments one day a week during their four years of high school while receiving a Catholic-based education. 

By living the core values of faith, service and purpose, Cristo Rey’s leaders and students have persevered through daunting challenges, including the flood of 2016 that forced the school to hold classes for nearly 18 months at a Baton Rouge business park. 

Today, classes are conducted in modular buildings at the site of the former Redemptorist High School, which closed in 2015. 

Since opening its doors, the school has belonged to the Cristo Rey Network, which started after the Society of Jesus found an innovative way to expand opportunities for students from low-income families in Chicago. However, that relationship will end at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

While designing a curriculum to prepare students for college, the Cristo Rey’s network’s founders created a Corporate Work Study program where students help fund their tuition costs and explore future career opportunities by working one day each school week at a local business or organization. 

After this pilot program proved successful, the Cristo Rey Network replicated it in 37 high schools in 24 states.

In June 2015, the Cristo Rey Network approved the founding of Cristo Rey Baton Rouge Franciscan High School as its 32nd location after school leaders secured letters of support from willing employers and the Diocese of Baton Rouge agreed to lease the buildings of the former Redemptorist High School to Cristo Rey with the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady serving as the school’s required religious sponsor. 

 “We opened the doors in August 2016, and five days later was the flood of 2016. The school went under four feet of water,” said Howell said. “

“There were times when we wondered if it was going to work, but we had faith that there was a reason why we started this school,” said Waguespack.

After the buildings of Redemptorist were demolished because of flood damage, FEMA funding was approved for the modular buildings. 

Cristo Rey senior Benjamin Redmond praised the school for teaching him responsibility and the need for attention to detail, especially when juggling the competing time demands of work, school and high school athletics. 

“It can get overwhelming sometimes,” Redmond said. “I finally managed all three of them and had good grades. I’m going to a college that I like, majoring in something that I want to be.”

As a student, Redmond worked at Vivid Graphics where he gained valuable work experience designing artwork for clients such as Raising Canes. He is planning to major in graphic design at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. 

CRBR graduate Anthony Martinez credited the school with helping him focus on the end goal of his hard work. He described himself as a “C or D” student before entering Cristo Rey and reported that he recently earned a 4.0 GPA for two consecutive semesters at LSU, where he majors in construction management.

Martinez said his progress was not easy or straightforward. Although he had impressive work experience as a student worker at Cajun Industries, strong letters of recommendation and an acceptable GPA, LSU officials told him his ACT score of 18 fell below the acceptable range.

“I was waitlisted. I didn’t really have a plan B set up,” he said, explaining that LSU eventually admitted him through its college preparatory Pre-Scholars Academy but required him to begin with a major of Interdisciplinary Studies. After practicing good study habits, Martinez eventually switched to his preferred major, where credit from his Cristo Rey work experience will also accelerate his graduation date and help him save tuition costs.  

He said he schedules time for homework around a full-time job with a long-term view in mind. “Once I get out of college,” he said, “I’m actually going to be using the curriculum that I’m taking, and possibly multibillion dollar projects will be in my hands.”

Martinez and Redmond each said CRBR’s religion classes, daily prayers and school Mass celebrations have helped them focus on closer relationships with God. They also said they enjoyed CRBR community service projects like volunteering at the Baton Rouge Food Bank and helping to maintain the Sweet Olive Cemetery, also in Baton Rouge. 

Howell explained how charitable service projects prepare students to be future leaders. 

“It gives you a sense of fulfillment and a sense of awareness of things in the community that need to be addressed and how you can personally get involved to make a difference,” he said.

Howell and Cristo Rey employee Molly Mayeaux said they are grateful for the financial support CRBR receives from the Baton Rouge community. After accounting for revenue from tuition and the Corporate Work Study program, Howell said, “we end up with our total cost for the year, probably exceeding our revenues by about $1,100 per student.” 

He praised the generosity of FMOL and others who help to cover these costs. 

“It’s really important for us to get the word out about Cristo Rey and gather the community around us so we can continue to flourish, and our students continue to have a place to come and build up their lives,” said Mayeaux.

The school is transitioning to Franciscan High School beginning with the 2022-23 school year and will no longer be a part of the Cristo Rey network, although school officials have emphasized the critical Corporate Work Study program will not be affected.